Rob
Dinerman, Squashtalk reporter on the scene in New York City.
by
Rob Dinerman, Grand Central Terminal, New York, Jan 31, 2002
All content
© 2002 Squashtalk, photos:
©
2002 Debra Tessier
Fitz-Gerald and Owens Display Contrasting Approaches to Dominance
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| Carol Owens(foreground) overpowers Brind (photo © 2002 Debra Tessier) |
Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Carol Owens, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds respectively, both stormed through their semi-final matches Thursday evening on the four-glass-wall portable tour court on the south end of Grand Central Station, with neither coming even close to losing a game. They will meet tonight at 7 o'clock in the final of the $20,000 Carol Weymuller Cup, a WISPA Tour event sponsored by Arader & O'Rourke, which for the first time ever is being held as part of the annual Tournament Of Champions tournament.
With No. 2 ranked Leilani Joyce of New Zealand sidelined at least until this summer with an Achilles tendon rupture this past autumn, Fitz-Gerald and Owens, who met in the 2001 British Open final last spring, have shown themselves to be far superior to the rest of the WISPA field, in a situation reminiscent of the way Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova held sway in women's tennis for the better part of a decade from the late 1970's through most of the 1980's.
COMMON BEGINNINGS
They both were originally coached by Fitz-Gerald's mother, who had been
a fine squash and tennis player in her own right, and between them they
have won a total of five World Opens. In this tourney, the only player
to take a game from either of them was Vicky Botwright, who took advantage
of a loose and tinny second game by Owens in their first-round match Sunday
evening at the Heights Casino in Brooklyn, which had been the perennial
site of the Weymuller event (which was named in honor of its longtime
head pro, a ranked American hardball player in the 1970's) until this
year's edition was moved from the quarter-finals onward to the heart of
midtown Manhattan.
For this tournament, Fitz-Gerald and Owens also had in common the fact that each was playing her semi against a 24-year-old British opponent who was coming off an exhilarating but exhausting win in the quarters, in both of which the eventual winner led two games to one but faced a fourth-game 8-6 deficit before rallying to rescue that game 10-8 and thereby advance. Natalie Pohrer, in just her third tournament back after missing eight months of action due to a knee injury and the tragic death of her younger brother, had defeated third-seeded Linda Charman-Smith in her quarter while fourth seed Stephanie Brind's advance to the semis required her to survive a physical and contentious battle with Rebecca Macree that didn't end until 11 o'clock Wednesday evening.
EAGER AND WELL RESTED FITZ
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| Sarah Fitz-Gerald on the attack (photo © 2002 Debra Tessier) |
Pohrer versus Fitz-Gerald was the first women's semi-final, and the top-seeded and well-rested Australian, who had received a quarter-final walkover from the injured Suzanne Horner and thus hadn't played a match since her Sunday evening dismissal of the young New Zealander Shelley Kitchen, looked unbelievably eager to spring back into action. In civvies Fitz-Gerald appears fairly reserved and unimposing, but on court she exudes limitless energy and is constantly on the attack, a veritable tigress ready to pounce on every loose ball and bury it for a winner. She is always bouncing on the balls of her feet while awaiting an opponent's offering, like a boxer seeking an opening, and she has beautiful shoulder turn, especially on her backhand, before cracking her full-bodied strokes.
Pohrer, who admitted afterwards that she didn't really have her legs under her all night, was having trouble reacting to the Fitz-Gerald pace and always seemed to be forced to react to the latter's swift response before fully completing her own stroke. As first pair of 9-3 games quickly progressed, Pohrer increasingly had to guess which of several open-ball options Fitz-Gerald would select, and when she guessed wrong there was no chance to recover.
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| Sarah Fitz-Gerald (foreground) and Natalie Pohrer (photo © 2002 Debra Tessier) |
The reigning British Open champion was contributing to Pohrer's predicament by holding the ball until the last possible moment before snapping it in one direction or another, and an increasingly flustered Pohrer hit four consecutive tins in the third game, enabling Fitz-Gerald to move from 4-0 to 8-0 before a tinned Fitz-Gerald forehand working boast accounted for the game's first "hand-out" situation. Shortly thereafter, an ungettable backhand straight drop ended the 9-3, 3 and 1 tally and ushered Fitz-Gerald into the final.
Though understandably initially disappointed by the way this semi went and the size of the score, Pohrer later pronounced herself "thrilled" with her overall tournament performance, which had seen her defeat seeded players Natalie Grinham and Charman-Smith and through which she had announced her return to WISPA's top echelon and the rebirth of her career.
OWENS A FREIGHT TRAIN TONIGHT
The balancing semi-final later that evening between Owens and Brind showed
not only the strength of Owens's all-around game but also the degree to
which the course of early-round matches can affect what happens later
on. One night earlier, Owens had cruised to a straight-set victory over
the teenage Egyptian qualifier Omneya Abdul Kawy while hours later Brind
eked out a brutal and airtight struggle with Macree, a match that was
replete with shoving (both during and once even between points), many
lets and a grinding character that had to have an impact on the victorious
Brind, who was unable to get to bed until well after 2 am.
No wonder that in the immediate aftermath of her 9-1, 0 and 2 semi-final loss Brind acknowledged that "there was something missing tonight." Certainly there was nothing missing from the 2000 World Champion's game. Although her sharpness level had "been in and out" over the several tune-up events she had played in the last few weeks, she was very keen and assertive right from the outset of this match, especially with her very accurate backhand volley drop shot, which often either nicked outright or stayed so low and close to the wall that Brind couldn't scrape it back.
If Fitz-Gerald appears to be snapping the ball, Owens seems more to muscle it, and her severe rails and crosscourts either kept Brind laboring to the back corners to retrieve them or were so shallow and low that they died in front of her lunge forward and scoop them back. Brind had compellingly showed her strength and fortitude in standing up to Macree in the quarters, but against Owens this night she seemed badly physically overmatched, like a talented welterweight boxer trying to duke it out with a champion heavyweight.
From 3-1 up in the first game, Owens won 20 consecutive official points, and it was not until she was down 0-5 in the third that Brind (who apparently forgot the one point she had registered in the first game when she later said that at that stage of the third her primary worry was that she might get shut out 27 points to none) was able to get back on the scoreboard with a same winning backhand crosscourt drop volley that had served her so well 24 hours earlier against Macree.
None of the games exceeded seven minutes, and when it was over Owens noted how aggressive Peter Nicol had been in his semi-final win over John White in the match immediately prior to hers, and how seeing Nicol's approach had convinced her of the need to apply the same game plan in her upcoming semi with Brind. Certainly both she and her rival Fitz-Gerald carried the play all the way in their respective semi-final wins and the outcome of their final this evening may well hinge on which player outdoes the other in executing this crucial but taxing tactic.
Results:
